Thankful for some good advice from members of this community. I was able to transfer my tank to a new stand. The old lighter brown on in the second pic was the old stand and it was deteriorating. The finish was gone and the particle board underneath was starting to crumble. put the corals in buckets and drained all but about 3 inches of water- just enough for the fish to swim. It was light enough at that point for my nephew and i to move it. filled it back up gently using a syphon so as not to disturb the substrate too much as the fish were in 3 inches of water and there she is! minimal disturbance and the fish and corals are all doing great!